From State Rep. Dan Ugaste:
Progress on Thompson Center redevelopment
In a move long pushed by House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and other members of the House Republican Caucus, the State is moving forward with plans to redevelop the Loop city block that holds the James R. Thompson Center.
The Thompson Center is a major State office building that, in non-pandemic times, serves as a base for many state government employees in the Chicago area.
The State has taken steps to acquire rights to other office-space property located elsewhere in the downtown-Chicago area, an initial step in what could lead to vacating the 1980s-era building and preparing it for demolition.
The State would earn a substantial one-time return from selling the valuable LaSalle Street real estate on which the Thompson Center sits.
In addition to earning a one-time return to the State from the sale of the Thompson Center, redevelopment of the block could also bolster the status of LaSalle Street as a global financial center.
Potential developers are preparing bids for the square block to become the footing for what could be one of the Loop’s tallest skyscrapers.
In order for a taller skyscraper to be built where the Thompson Center now stands, the Chicago City Council will have to grant zoning concessions to the future developer.
In a typical deal, the developer will offer to help obtain secondary financing for city of Chicago grants and loans to applicants in quasi-redlined neighborhoods of Chicago where conventional financing is tough to get.
Council members began to discuss a Thompson Center Block zoning change this week.
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When the building was being constructed, Illinois had severe financial problems.
To save money, Governor Thompson made a disastrous decision. He allowed it to be constructed with only one pane of glass, instead of the two called for by the architeck.
That made the heating and cooling system inadequate
The Thompson Center personifies (in an architectural sense) what a failure Chicago
and Illinois have become, not even suitable for habitation of the section 8 crowd.
Who would want to build another skyscraper in this dying city of political thieves
and the ever present hyperviolent flotsam and jetsam that inhabit within ?
I used to go into that building fairly often to get on the ‘L’.
The place always leaked when it rained, and the maintenance crews were in no hurry to mop up the water.
There were ‘Wet Floor’ signs and barrels placed to catch the big drips.
I guess there was a problem with the skylights being improperly sealed.
Believe it or not, there are preservationists who want that building saved.
It should be nuked from orbit.
This building was a casebook example of what happens when you have a famous architect who wants to build a monument to himself instead of a habitable and usable building.
People on the South side of the building were unable to work without sweltering from the greenhouse effect produced by the windows in the Summer and froze in the Winter.
They couldn’t even see their computer screens in the glare of the sun.
An untested AC system was initially used where air was passed over huge blocks of ice which was inadequate and had to be supplemented by a conventional system.
There weren’t enough electrical outlets so the carpeting was constantly being torn up to run cable.
All in all, the 1930’s vintage former State building across the street was at least more comfortable and workable.
Tear it down.
Chicago per WIKI:
“The corruption capital of America”
“undoubtedly the most corrupt city in our nation”
“Chicago has a long history of political corruption,[12] dating to the incorporation of the city in 1833.[13] It has been a de facto monolithic entity of the Democratic Party from the mid 20th century onward.[14][15] Research released by the University of Illinois at Chicago reports that Chicago and Cook County’s judicial district recorded 45 public corruption convictions for 2013, and 1642 convictions since 1976, when the Department of Justice began compiling statistics. This prompted many media outlets to declare Chicago the “corruption capital of America”.[16] Gradel and Simpson’s Corrupt Illinois (2015) provides the data behind Chicago’s corrupt political culture.[17][18] They found that a tabulation of federal public corruption convictions make Chicago “undoubtedly the most corrupt city in our nation”,[19] with the cost of corruption “at least” $500 million per year.[20]”
Wouldn’t you think lawyers would want to be near the courthouse?
When I worked at that gigantic rathole, in the mid 90s, they get a suicide about every 4 months ….. 3 a year,
people would apparently jump a high balcony and imagine, using Roadrunner cartoon physics, to try to make to the bullseye on the tiled sub floor.
One did it while I was having a late lunch, and the suicide actually hit a woman who was walking on the subfloor about 100 feet from me.
I gave her first aid.
The suicide was bag of bones.